Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The Flying Baby-I Want You to Love Me

Maybe it's because I spent the day in Jerusalem but yesterday was such a perfect Autumn day-cool and bright. It was so fun to enjoy a few rays of sunshine while wearing a cardigan(!). But today, well it feels like Summer isn't ready to say goodbye just yet and it was one of those days when you faced the heat outside only if you really had to. At least I can enjoy some light summer tunes like this one. When I hear this song and close my eyes I feel as if I'm at a summer concert at the Barby, which is always accompanied by a sense of freedom and sweet escapism. I'm still a bit bummed out that I missed The Flying Baby's reunion concerts this past July (but I had a good excuse as I was abroad) and that I'm going to miss their concert at this year's inDnegev (and I have a good, though not as a fun excuse for that too). The truth is I'm surprisingly okay with not going to inDnegev this year-maybe because I won't be coming from Be'er Sheva but I think it has more to do with the fact that I just feel like I need a break from the festival so that I'll be able to enjoy it again. Two years ago it was amazing experiencing it for the first time and last year it was...okay. The performances were great and I enjoyed spending time with festival friends I don't see very often but something was a bit off and I can't really explain what. Maybe the feeling that in its sixth year it was becoming a much bigger event than it had planned to be-which is great, I'm all for success, especially among independent artists who really deserve it. But still, the atmosphere wasn't the same and I regret not going to the first inDnegev festivals which my friends came back from wide-eyed and with the feeling that they were part of something truly special. Now that I think about it, it's a bit how I feel about Geva Alon. I wrote here about the delight of discovering Alon just before his big break and I can't help but wonder how amazing it would have been to experience in real time the early years of his career with The Flying Baby instead of a reunion show. I've heard people say similar things about bands from before their time but this is much more dissapointing because being a teenager I was at the perfect age to experience them live-I just wasn't aware of their existence. I just realized how 'oy oy oy' this sounds given the fact that their reunion show in July was amazing (here's proof) and the band members may not be in the same place they were when they first started out but they have really matured as musicians. Geva's latest EP is flawless and it sounds like he really found himself as an artist and I guess also in general as a person. This song was recorded as part of material for their third album after Inner World, which had a very limited release, and Pain to Give,which in my opinion perfectly captures the chaotic period of the Second Intifada. The album never happened and Geva went on to a solo career but luckily the band released in June a remastered album of Inner World along with unreleased material. It's one of the best rock albums I've heard in a long time and I almost felt as if I was back in middle school, when I first dived into grunge and classic rock. Almost.